Canon EOS M5 Preview – System camera without concessions

Canon is a big name in camera land, but especially in the field of DSLRs and compact cameras. There’s one category that Canon didn’t pay much attention to: mirrorless cameras. The models were often equipped with old technology and for a long time important functions, such as tilting screens, focus peaking and a built-in viewfinder, were missing. Until now, because the new EOS M5 seems to be a true 80D in a smaller jacket. In this preview you can read if he is.

Review

First a brief retrospective to indicate the position of the EOS M5. It all started with the first EOS M launched in 2012. That was four years ago, but at the time Canon entered the mirrorless system camera market quite late. After all, they had existed for four years, since 2008.

The first EOS M was already outdated during its introduction if you compared the camera with competing system cameras. It had no PASM dial, no tiltable screen, a loose, bulky flash, a very limited range of lenses, no EVF and no compact zoom lens. The main stumbling block, however, was the autofocus, which was downright slow, although that was improved some time later with a firmware update. As far as specs are concerned, it was an absolute entry-level camera, but Canon nevertheless put a suggested retail price of 849 euros on it. Because the market price quickly dropped towards 300 euros, the EOS M was still sold nicely.

After the introduction of the EOS M, it remained silent for a long time. It wasn’t until a year and a half later, in December 2013, that the EOS M2 was announced, but it didn’t come to Europe, and was sold mainly in Japan and some other Asian countries. The improvements were minimal; the EOS M2 got the slightly faster Hybrid CMOS AF II system, Wi-Fi and a slightly higher burst rate.

It wasn’t until the introduction of the EOS M3 that Canon seemed to be catching up, as many of the criticisms were addressed. That camera got a new sensor, improved autofocus, a PASM dial, tilting screen, built-in flash, multi-interface hot shoe and even an exposure compensation dial. Still , the speed was disappointing, the sensor lagged and an EVF was missing, although an external version was available at an additional cost of 240 euros.

EOS M5: three times is a charm

What you can deduce from the above is that Canon has – knowingly or unknowingly – not equipped the EOS M-series with the latest technology so far. That was strange, because since 2013 Canon had the lightning-fast DualPixel sensor of the 70D at its disposal, but it was not used for the EOS M series, while this type of camera depends entirely on the sensor for autofocus.

The tide now seems to be turning, as the EOS M5 features the brand new 24-megapixel sensor from the 80D. This is known for the higher image quality, including the dynamic range, and is equipped with the fast DualPixel cmos autofocus. It didn’t stop there, because the new Digic 7 processor is also present, in addition to 1080p60 video and a built-in OLED EVF with a refresh rate of 120fps. The camera has five-axis stabilization, but that is mainly an advertising slogan; it’s a combination of optical stabilization in the lens and digital stabilization on the sensor. Also new is digital stabilization during filming. The M5 now films in 1080p resolution with up to 60fps. Filming in 4k is not possible, by the way.

The burst rate of the EOS M3 was nothing to write home about for a mirrorless camera at 4.2fps, especially as it lacked continuous autofocus, but the M5 has addressed this issue. It shoots 7fps with continuous autofocus and 9fps with single focus from the first frame. Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth are also available to connect the camera to a smartphone. This allows you to operate the camera remotely, but also to send photos. The LCD is tiltable and touch-sensitive, just like that of the EOS M3. It can unfold both up and down and in the latter case even 180 degrees, which is interesting for vloggers. If it is on a tripod, tilting it down is a bit inconvenient.

If you look through the viewfinder, you can choose a focus point with your thumb on the screen and that works quite intuitively. The screen is also freely configurable, so you can choose whether you want to use the entire screen or just the left or right part. The latter is practical, because your nose gets in the way when you look through the viewfinder. Panasonic has had such a function on Lumix G cameras for some time now.

Body and controls

The body has also been addressed. The grip of the M3 had already grown considerably compared to its predecessors, but that of the M5 is even deeper. It holds very nicely. There are also more buttons and dials, which improves operation. For example, there is an extra wheel on top with a Dial Func. button in the middle. This allows you to quickly call up a certain function, such as the white balance or the ISO value, and then switch it with the rotary wheel all around. In practice, this works a lot faster and more pleasantly than via the Quick menu: the Q button on the back.

What setting options you see here can also be configured entirely by yourself. A total of five buttons are programmable, including an M-Fn button on the top and a button near the lens on the front, which replaces the DoF preview button on Canon DSLRs. That is no coincidence, because you can do that with it, although there are many other functions that you can assign to the button. There is also a dial around the shutter button and the d-pad on the back, and there is a dial for exposure compensation, as well as a program dial with two programmable positions.